1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the garment used by motorcyclists, more particularly not only the suits where a pair of trousers is inseparably joined to a body-piece, but also the body-pieces or jackets and the trousers on their own.
2. Description of Related Art
These articles of garment are usually made of leather and are characterized by somewhat ill-matched conditions of use. The first condition of use relates to the motorcycle riding, so that the garment must adhere to the body of the person wearing it, not only to avoid undesirable aerodynamic effects, but also so as not to obstruct movements, especially although not exclusively during sports competitions. The second condition of use relates to the person when not sitting in the saddle of the motorcycle, so that the garment must allow the wearer to walk and more generally to perform free movement of the upper and lower limbs. In most cases the manufacturers tend to make the garment in question in such a way as to favour this second condition of use, to the detriment of the first condition, which is a penalizing factor and a cause of dissatisfaction for many users.
A design which to a certain extent attempts to overcome these shortcomings is the leather suit disclosed in European patent application EP-A-0 950 360 which envisages the application of a number of elastic inserts on the visible surface thereof. The only one of these inserts which is described and illustrated in full in the said document is an elastic strip in the form of a “U” consisting of three parts applied respectively on the two sides of the trunk, where the folds present in the insert are substantially vertical in the rest condition (i.e. when the suit is not being worn), and on the bottom of the back, where the corresponding folds are substantially horizontal. In this way the direction of greatest elasticity of the various parts of the U-shaped strip is substantially perpendicular to the line of longitudinal development of the said parts. The effectiveness of this elastic insert is, however, limited to the trunk of the body, so that it may be stated that this suit, although it is more satisfactory than others, nevertheless does not possess optimum features for riding a motorcycle. It must be noted, moreover, that the U-shaped strip is obtained by forming separately its three parts and then sewing them together (end to end), after the strip has been applied to the suit and while maintaining it stretched to its maximum extent. This makes manufacture of the suit somewhat complex and therefore also relatively costly. Other inserts which have a linear shape and limited extension are separately applied in other zones of the suit.